Really hoped it would never be me starting one of these tales of woe threads . Kid in a ute ran into me today, while I was stopped in peak hour traffic. Took out the whole hatch, lights, and rear gfx:





The damage is pretty much limited to the rear. The body and roof are still straight, and it still drives perfectly. Time to get some quotes, and try source another hatch over here somewhere. So pissed off!!!

 

Oh man!! That SUCKS!

Glad youre ok though, thats the important part.

Just from the pics it looks like the rear quarters didnt get too tangled up. How is the door gap at the rear of the door? Do they still open/close easily? If you dont have much damage to the fender or inner hatch area, it should be easily fixable. Looks like the crash bar and absorber in the back did their job.

Hopefully you can find what you need over there. Hatches are usually a dime a dozen, and I find are rarely destroyed even on wrecked cars. Those tail lights might give you some trouble, but if you cant find some, maybe someone here can help you out. Not sure what shipping to Australia is like. Gotta keep that RHD'er on the road!!

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

I am feeling for you bro. Hope you can find a replacement.

 

Bummer

 

Ouch! Are you ok?

 

wish ya was a lot closer, id give you a hatch.

whats a ute?

 

Thanks man, I'd take u up on that if I was closer too!

Ute - utility vehicle. You guys call them trucks. This one had a nice big bull-bar up front.

Yeah, I'm fine - was a pretty hard hit, but the rear absorbed it. Doesn't seem to be any frame damage - it's straight, drives straight, doors open and close perfectly. Runs bloody perfectly as usual, acutally. Hit came straight on and just punted me forward a little. You can see a slit in the rear clip on either side of the license plate - never had it off, I assume there's an extension of the frame there that has punched thru the outer skin from inside.

Just gonna take a bit of money, and time to find the parts. Until then, guess I've got a 'vert of sorts.

 

Think El Camino or Ranchero.

 

So sorry that happened. I know that would certainly ruin my day if it happened to me. Parts for a 3dr gen must be hard to find in Auzzieland, good luck with it.

 

Man that really sucks. Hope you can locate what you need to put it back together.

 

Sorry man,hopefully you'll only need a new bumper, hatch and spoiler.The accident appears to be the other guys fault,let them worry about fixing it.Good Luck !!!!

 

Hopefully the other guy was insurered. Might be a chance for a respray.

 

So he claims, though of course he wants to just pay for repairs and not get his insurance involved. He will change his tune once I get some quotes, I bet.

Unfortunately, this might be a financial write-off. There might be a hatch somewhere in the country if I'm lucky (though it needs to be an '86, because of the holes for the third brake light), or import from the US will cost $$$. On closer inspection, the hinge and strut mount points have been shifted up and forward about an inch, so there's a lot of metalwork to be re-set.

Just rough guessing, the hatch will probably be $1-2000, taillights several hundred, rear clip i have no idea - maybe fixable, maybe unobtainable, possible hatch motor, labour maybe a grand. Probably looking at 4-6k all up, have to see what his insurance says.

 

Are they that picky about the 3rd brake light being year-correct? All the hatches for these cars are interchangable... its a shame you cant just get the first one you find.

Sucks after all that work trying to get headers on it, some kid in a newfangled el camino has to come and crunch it.

 

The Panel Beater could just put the car on a Car-o-liner bench and it'd come back with the original factory body spec if you think the rear is bent.

There are a few of these being wrecked so you'll have now problems getting a rear hatch glass and lid.

 

Nah, I'm just picky about it . I always thought the aerodynamic pod sticking out the back was kinda cool looking, like an afterburner . Rego inspection / rta etc could care less about the style of the 3rd brake light, just so long as there is one. It landed on the floor - I'll find a way to graft it back onto the replacement hatch.

Let's get this ute thing straight , this is what hit me:


Not the El Camino full-body style, though we do have them too. Every tradie in the country has one of these - the aluminum tray style - don't know what you call 'em in the US. As it happens, my TA bears a resemblance to an elky now

That's what I'm hoping; me and whatever repairer I end up with will have to put some phone time in looking. Crossing fingers I'll come up lucky. Although - maybe a couple of Mad Max style long range fuel tanks might look good instead

 

Ute= pickup truck

 

Check out Thirdgenranch.com and some of the other vendors here to "help" out whoever does the research on your car for parts. they can probably get them alot cheaper than otherwise. Also, some wrecker yards in the US will ship, I'll do some digging and see what I can come up with. Also, make sure you pull together all your receipts for your argument with the insurance over how much the car is "really worth". Any upgrades/mods that you've done could help sway the case.

Also, if they insist on scrapping it (It's a fine runner, just needs some body work) and they let you, let them scrap it, take what money they give you, and then buy it back from the wrecker yard.

Is there a 3rd gen or pontiac club where you live? I was suprised to find a huge following here in England. Maybe they can help find parts locally?

 

Check this site out.

http://www.frankspontiacparts.com/us...rdtransam3.htm

He's got an 86 rear clip for sale, $760.

85-90 Tail lamp assembly for $150.00

I don't know if he'll ship, but it's worth asking.

 

Not good. Hopefully you can get it back on the road soon.

 

Shame about your TA, Best of luck finding the parts needed to get it back together.....



Trays are called beds on this side of the pond, That particular one we call a boxed service bed......

 

I have a hatch and glass from a 82' Camaro that I'd give ya for the cost of shipping. But it does not have the holes for the 86' third brake lamp and I'm not sure if the hatch will work.

 

Shipping to Australia would be pricey!

 

Perhaps, but cheaper with this offer than if he had to buy it and then have it shipped. That is an outstanding offer White!

 

Hey guys, thanks for all the help! Sorry for not responding earlier, have been getting hammered by work. Also trying to find a place to even look at this car has been a real pita - apparently it's a Lambo made of solid gold or something, nobody wants to touch it. Finally found somewhere though, so there she stays until they get around to assessing it.

I found a hatch locally from a Camaro, real cheap, so I grabbed it. Ozz1967 pm'd me a link to one, and comparing what I bought to that, I think the shapes are slightly different - thought that the Camaro/TA hatches were the same??

http://www.suburbanimports.com.au/usedparts.htm

Scroll about halfway down the page. Versus:

http://www.firebirdcentral.com/product_p/she-314.htm

What do you guys reckon? The tailpiece appears to be tapered vs straight. Sorry really rushed atm, will post a proper pic later tonight. I don't have the car here to measure against.

White: Thanks for your AWSOME offer! But looks like the Camaro hatch might not fit.

Tail-lights: Hawks has them, $75 each , shipping over $350 . Oh well, at least I'm not paying

Gotta run guys, I'll post back tonight.

 

Ok, nice short day today . Well, the world didn't end today, and I think I'm just having hatch paranoia. Here's what I bought:



Leaning up against the wall - it looks tapered. When crouching down at floor level, it looks straight. Damndest thing - parallax effect! It'll fit fine .

Got this across town for $350 - a cracking deal. As it happens, I started a thread about this particular hatch a few months back, wondering if the all thirdgen hatches were interchangeable - was going to get it for a spare, never did. Can't believe it wasn't sold yet

It's got the rear wiper motor and a parking permit sticker for the 'Texas Womens University', so I gather it's probably from a Berlinetta

Thanks for all the hatch research and offers guys - most appreciated Hopefully I'm good for sourcing parts now. Just gotta wait for the shop to get to looking at it - probably after Christmas realistically.

 

The thing with that hatch is, if you want to keep it original you will have to remove the wiper mechanism,for 86 it wasn't available on the TA model.

 

Glad you posted a picture, because I think we were all thinking of the Holden Commodore.

Anyway, sorry to hear about that, man. It sucks to see these cars (and nice cars in general) get smashed because of people mentally unfit to drive. His truck seems to have practically NO damage. The bull bar protected him while putting all the damage into your rear end. Glad you're okay.


BTW, was his truck a company vehicle lol?

 

I wish I had a wiper for my car. That's one thing that I miss about my old Eagle Talon. When it rains, I can't see crap out my rear.

 

Yeah, it doesn't have an arm or the interior plastic, so I'll have to use the old one. I'd like to keep it as original as possible, so I think I'll lose the motor. I'll remount the third brake light pod with some silastic, which I suspect would interfere with the wiper arm. No washer nipple on the roof either, of course.

The Commodore is the ubiquitous Aussie family/blokey sedan for decades now, along with the Ford Falcon, Toyota Camry etc etc - don't know what your US GM equivalents would be.

Yep, I had to get hit with a bull bar. Would have been nicer to share the damage around

Heh, too much rain isn't usually a problem over here . As mentioned, I'll probably ditch it for originality, and so I can re-use the third brake light.

 

oh wow, Sorry to hear about this Treefiddy just glad your ok !

 

Hey Brian - thanks man, yep I'm ok, the car took the hit rather than me, thankfully. Hope your back etc is holding up too!

The damage is limited at least, ultimately, not a huge one in the grand history of auto accidents . Gonna be more of a paperwork/insurance/time hassle than anything. Merry Xmas to me!

 

Sorry about your car man, hope it all works out for you.

 

Just a quick update, for anyone interested.

As mentioned previously, I got the car into a smash repair shop prior to Christmas, to get just an initial estimate. There it sat for nearly 2 months, while I got jerked around by the owner. It finally got a little ugly, so I gave up a couple weeks ago and took it back, they had done nothing at all.

Now it turns out the kid who hit me was not insured after all, so I've claimed with my insurance company, let them sort it out. It's now gone to their preferred repairer for this kind of thing, shop has '32 Fords, Mustangs, rat rods etc etc in progress, and is run by car guys - much more like it It's way across town nearly 60km, but I'm much happier with these guys.

In the interim, I slapped the new hatch on roughly so I could drive it practically:



Pretty ugly, but driveable. The rear lights all work - it's really only the covers that got smashed, the lenses are fine.

To that end - does anyone know a supplier for just the covers, or have a decent used pair for sale? Looking for the same 85-90 cross-hatch ones like in the pic above. I can only find suppliers for used whole assemblies, like Hawks etc. My new body guy reckons he might have a lead or two locally, thought I'd run it by here as well.

 

Man I guess body shops are the same all around the world.

 

why don't you just swap out the tail lights the whole assembly!!It's easier than taking the lenses off.

 

I guess in this case it shouldn't be a problem at all.

 

It looks a lot better than it did. Keep us posted.

 

What wheels are those? They look like something off an early 90s thunderbird?

 

Good eyes!

 

Sorry to see the bird get hit. I got hit by some young punks who were texting and listening to loud music last summer and almost lost my cool. This was in traffic, downtown, and it was a hot summer night so I was already pissed LOL. I only had bumper damage though and repaired it myself half-assed because I didn't wanna bother with insurance or anything. Do the job right if their insurance is paying for it and get the right hatch, lights, and body work done properly.

It already looks better with that semi-new hatch on it! lol! Good luck

 

The kid that hit him was uninsured

 

I was thinking late '90s Mustang, but definitely Ford.

Glad to hear an update TreeFitty, car looks much better with intact hatch glass lol.

 

Know how you feel - parts must be scarce down under... Doesn't UPS fly there often, you'd think they'd be reasonable. Let me know if you need any help getting parts over there - perhaps good crating would be an advantage.

I had a rear impact - your lucky cause no rear fender damage. I had damage on both rear fenders, and the front where it clipped the trailer bed it fell off.

I got the hatch for $50 locally and rear bumper cover $150, tail lights - whole set w/center $250, most expensive was the new FG spoiler $530 w/shipping. I wasn't putting that rubber POS back w/new paint.... I got whole car repainted (needed it) ... anyway. Insurance appraisers didnt total it, value at around 9K on paper.

 

Your car was damaged a lot worse than mine, by the look of it. Wow, I would love to get those prices around here! Parts locally are non-existent of course, and shipping for large items like hatches, bumpers etc is prohibitive.

I'm looking to find just the covers in order to keep costs down, as they are the only thing really destroyed. For eg, quote to ship a full set of tail-lights from Hawks was about $550. Not that I'm paying for repairs of course, but I've only got 5k from insurance to play with.

They were on the car when I bought it 10 yrs ago. I hated them at the time, and vowed to ditch them, but this car has thrown me so many problems over the years they were always way down on the list of priorities. So they they sit.

They're getting pretty scungy up close, but have kind of grown on me over the years. Extremely 80's dontcha think I think they were aftermarket Commodore wheels back in the day.

Here's a better pic (must get my vbGarage sorted out):

 

I could definitely see how they could grow on you to the point you cant be bothered to change them. I hate my 91-92 Camaro 16 inch wheels... but I dont hate em enough to change em yet...

Whats interesting is they really do have a weird Ford vibe to em for some reason.

 

Ya reckon ? I've never really seen anything tri-spoked around these parts before, tho even more embarrassing - once I did see a set of these exact rims on a little 70's Datsun. They seem the 80's idea of 'futuristic' to me

 

With a tad bit of research, I found that they are 15x6 Enkei Aeronautics from the mid 80's. (1 point for TreeFiddy lol) Not all that common, and finding them with center caps seems to be a rare find. They normally have "ENKEI Aeronautics" on the edge of the center caps, but yours must have gotten rubbed off.




They look good on this old Scirocco. (Anyone notice the easter egg in this picture? )

 

LOL easter egg. More like iding as it doesnt want to be in a pic with a VW

Good to see you fixed up the car again.

 

My eyes went straight to it!